In case you thought North Korea had disappeared, no, it has not. Here’s a video they released of an SRBM (short-range ballistic missile) test launch back in September.
Video of North Korea's TLBM (train-launched ballistic misisle) pic.twitter.com/tbcjBgJFco
— Colin Zwirko (@ColinZwirko) September 16, 2021
More from 38 North:
The unveiling of a rail-mobile SRBM is surprising, given that North Korea has deployed all of its SRBMs on road-mobile launchers since their advent in the mid-1980s, and all of its new SRBMs (including the KN-23 and the “new type” variant) have been displayed on such launchers. Road-mobile deployment of such small missiles is straightforward and well-understood by Pyongyang.
The September 16 statement suggests that going rail-mobile was intended to diversify and add to the mobility and flexibility of the missile force and its ability to “deal a heavy blow at the threatening forces multiconcurrently [sic] with dispersive firing across the country.”[5] Pyongyang may also have seen propaganda value in revealing a hitherto unknown basing mode, and one cannot rule out the possibility of a new pet project of the reputedly train-loving Kim Jong Un.
It’s not the SRBMs that’s an issue so much as their work on ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles), which has been reported before, as Vann H. Van Diepen concludes:
The significance of the September 15 SRBM tests is not the missiles, which are along the lines of existing types, but the use of a rail-mobile launcher, which has little added value for the North’s already road-mobile SRBM force but important implications for its ICBMs. ICBMs, which are harder to make road-mobile than smaller missiles, would benefit from rail mobility much more than smaller systems. While rail-mobility is inferior to road-mobility in terms of promoting survivability, rail-mobile systems are significantly more survivable than fixed-base ones.
